2008-12-18

He might be considered as a "lame duck" president but US President George W. Bush still knows how to duck. He was agile enough to dodge the two succeeding shoe projectile hurled by the Iraqi journalist, Durgham Zaidi, last December 14 during a press conference. Although the president has maintained his composure and even joked about the matter, he was obviously shocked by the incident.

Although the show-throwing did not injure the chief executive, it was an assault on his dignity. It was a form of insult and protest that expressed the sentiments of the people of the Middle East. Clearly, many are not in favor of Bush's war policies in Iraq. These include many Americans. One proof of this is the recent popularity of a newly built website, Sock and Awe. The name is a pun of the US military campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime, "Shock and Awe."

The website, "Sock and Awe" (http://www.sockandawe.com), is an idea of Alex Tew of Britain. According to him, about 1.4 million people have already succeeded in knocking Bush on the face with the virtual shoes. The Shockwave game is simple enough. You simply have to hit the ducking president behind a rostrum and achieve the highest possible score within 30 seconds.